It’s been that kind of year. As the primary season is about to end, as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton could be preparing to say a graceful goodbye to the presidential race, her husband has gotten into yet another food fight.

Bill Gates and Pete Peterson

Bill Gates may have lost top seating on the Forbes billionaires list, but he leads Vanity Fair’s accounting of America’s 50 richest paydays.

The magazine ranked windfalls that came from big deals such as company sales, real estate transactions and stock cash-outs. Gates sold $2.5 billion in Microsoft stock last year.

In the early 1970s you couldn’t have a better opponent than Richard Nixon.

Indeed, when the embattled president’s
Enemies List became public, there was no complaining from those who made the cut.

Newsman Daniel Schorr and actor/activist Paul Newman treated their inclusion like a badge of honor. To have Nixon against you was to have the world for you.

These days, the best possible seal of disapproval might come from Christopher Hitchens, the erudite, outrageous, provocative, witty and indefatigable contrarian.